UTC A10 / A24 set for sale

[Kid Squid]

Hi Chaps,
Ive been asked by a friend if I can possibly sell a set of UTC A10/A24 for him -
He's looking at £800 for the pair. I did tell him thats toward the middle to top end of the prices, but he knows exactly what they are ( hes built tons of LA-2a's) and the current ebay / reverb price.
I popped in on Friday to pick up some Jensens for a project I'm doing and damn it, hes got iron for days. I'm gonna have to pass on them, so the offer is out there !

If you are interested, let me know ASAP, as they are gonna be listed on line probably this week.

Best,
Steve

 

[Whoops]

He's looking at £800 for the pair. I did tell him thats toward the middle to top end of the prices, but he knows exactly what they are ( hes built tons of LA-2a's) and the current ebay / reverb price.

Hello Steve,
there's something your friend got wrong and you should know that as you are selling these items for him.
UTC A24 sell in ebay in between 250 and 300€
The UTC A-10 sell between 130€ and 150€





That makes between 380€ and 450€ the market price for both,
you are asking £800 which is 935€, so that's more than 2 times the ebay market value for those items, so the asked price is ridiculous.
Maybe he is not well informed but you might wanna know that so you don't represent him in a ridiculous overprice sale attempt.

When checking prices on Ebay, to have an idea of what's really the market value you can't look to what sellers are asking but to the "Completed Listings" prices, those are the values that people actually paid.
People can ask what they want that doesn't mean that anyone will ever pay that amount, the finalized auctions are the actual market value.

In Ebay, next to "Search" click "Advanced", then check the option "completed listings" and do the search with that option on, then you will see the completed auctions for that item in the last months.

Best Regards

Tiago

 

[Kid Squid]

Hi Tiago,
Thanks for the reply - I did tell him that the prices were toward the top end, and the only reason Ive asked on here is because hes a long time friend.
He just asked me to see if I could sell them for him, at the price he bought them for pre-lockdowns. I think he just wanted to recoup the purchase price as he needs to repair his old Sunbeam motorcycle.
He originally bought them in for a client's LA2a build but the order fell through due to Covid.

I'll pop over there later and see what he wants to do.

Best,
Steve

 

[Kid Squid]

Just spoke to my friend, hes prepared to go no lower than £525 for the pair, if anyone is interested.

 

[xazrules]

Might I ask why there are vintage transformers that cost so much? Is for the sound or is a collection value?

 

[moamps]

Might I ask why there are vintage transformers that cost so much? Is for the sound or is a collection value?

Probably both. And the relationship between supply and demand. If you want to get the sound as close as possible to the original, then audio transformers are certainly critical. No one mentions the price of the original T4Bs above USD1k, the last one was sold on ebay for USD 1600. The original HA100X input transformer also reaches a very high price. By the way, I think it's pretty inappropriate to criticize the price that sellers are asking for, you just don't buy if it's too expensive for you.

 

[Whoops]

Might I ask why there are vintage transformers that cost so much? Is for the sound or is a collection value?

Hi,
they don't cost that much,
as I told before the prices are between 380€ and 450€ for the transformers being sold and not 935€ or 611€ as been asked here.

Greedy sellers try to push the prices for ridiculous high amounts just to see if they will pick up any "fish".
A knowledgeable buyer will know that the price is to high and not buy it, so then they have to lower the prices to reasonable amounts if they really want to sell it.

Some specific Vintage transformers have an high price because of scarcity, UTC doesnt exist anylonger so these transformers are not made for a long time.
They are not any better than alternatives from good contemporary brands like Sowter, Jensen, Cinemag, or Lundhall

Best Regards

 

[beatnik]

I don't think is inappropriate to single out cases where the asking price is beyond reasonable. We are on a forum after all.
Users here might have had a direct experience in testing the parts, often the average user has never heard a utc or made serious comparisons, is just attracted by its holy grail reputation.
I have often built la-2as for people that didn't really know the difference in sound between utc or modern transformers, but they just want utc because they are too scared their la-2a clone won't sound as good as the original.
It's obvious that prices for some vintage parts are seriously inflated, but my main worry is there are not so many good quality audio transformer manufacturers that would cater for the diy market (one-offs). It's a very niche market (particularly for tube audio)
In a way when possible I think it's best to support an active company that makes a good product for a real price instead of feeding speculation over the vintage parts. The danger is also a company puts their prices up because people are determined to buy a single utc at 3x times the price of their modern transformer. I have recently contacted Triad which is under new ownership and asked if they could still make some of the hs series, the quotes they have given me were a bit ridiculous, obviously they had a look on ebay...

 

[nielsk]

And remember to promptly test any transformer you buy!
Seen a few put on the shelf only to find it has an open coil when it finally gets installed...

 

[xazrules]

Audiophoolery at this price points but I respect them.

 

[Whoops]

And remember to promptly test any transformer you buy!
Seen a few put on the shelf only to find it has an open coil when it finally gets installed...

Thats really important advice!

 

[scott2000]

Just got that empty feeling in my stomach

 

[nielsk]

Just to note, I have bought from kid squid several items, all exactly as described and happy transactions

 

[Ataùlfo]

Hi,
they don't cost that much,
as I told before the prices are between 380€ and 450€ for the transformers being sold and not 935€ or 611€ as been asked here.

Greedy sellers try to push the prices for ridiculous high amounts just to see if they will pick up any "fish".
A knowledgeable buyer will know that the price is to high and not buy it, so then they have to lower the prices to reasonable amounts if they really want to sell it.

Some specific Vintage transformers have an high price because of scarcity, UTC doesnt exist anylonger so these transformers are not made for a long time.
They are not any better than alternatives from good contemporary brands like Sowter, Jensen, Cinemag, or Lundhall

Best Regards

Hello,
Without offense, why spell ´R’ -word every time? Just stick to your belief. You probably never heard early Neve’s or best Tab´s. The brands you quote are mid-range @ best ; do you think the top in audio world is not > to under-1k on a double set of tx’s? This is truly ´r*********’.

 

[iampoor1]

Hello,
Without offense, why spell ´R’ -word every time? Just stick to your belief. You probably never heard early Neve’s or best Tab´s. The brands you quote are mid-range @ best ; do you think the top in audio world is not > to under-1k on a double set of tx’s? This is truly ´r*********’.

Why are you bumping a for sale thread after 19 months of no activity just to question someone's claim that vintage transformers are not worth super high asking prices? Just stick to your beliefs man

 

[Whoops]

Hello,
Without offense, why spell ´R’ -word every time? Just stick to your belief. You probably never heard early Neve’s or best Tab´s. The brands you quote are mid-range @ best ; do you think the top in audio world is not > to under-1k on a double set of tx’s? This is truly ´r*********’.

You probably have nothing better to do with your time, otherwise you would not come here necrofile a dead thread about the attempt of selling some overpriced transformers,
specially when you don't even post or contribute anything at all to this forum.

Also Neve never made any transformers so you are wrong in your statement, and there were at least 4 different companies making transformers for Neve.
Also by early Neve what do you mean? the Germanium modules?
I've listened and tried all early Neve modules being it germanium or silicon, I also own a few.

You are also the only person in the world that would say that Sowter, Jensen, Cinemag, or Lundhall are "mid range transformers at best" so you are well alone on that, so I guess you don't know better than that.

You also don't know that for some people UTC means "You Take a Chance" so the real quality of UTC transformers is debated quite a few times and it's not accepted by everyone.
The reason some UTC transformers have an higher price is because of scarcity of some of the models, but even those prices, the actual prices people pay, are far lower than the asking prices in the first post of this thread, and I presented proof of that.

 

[Ataùlfo]

Hi,
It’s not me who launched ´R-word’ in front of a 1k offer for top double pair... But of course if one can get the same @ hipster rate$, it’s nice ; let’s stay nice.
PS : absolutely no snob’ry in the foregoing. Listen to an oldie Leipzig comp’...´can’t afford it, but it’s wunderbar.

•for sure one may get great sound with excellent brands, albeit still mid-range in absolute terms.
•It is of general interest to alleviate deflation-ist trend, yet what tx’s are worth is variable anyhow.

 

[Whoops]

Transformers are worth what people actually pay from them, not what some greedy seller ask for or puts in an auction.
People can ask what they want but the Value is what someone is willing to pay.

And people are not paying £800 for and UTC A10+A24, far from it, at least yet...